They Never Change
by SimonSeville27
Summary: Do people ever change?  After years of fighting, will the Seville family be able to make amends?  How much will one person put on the line to hold a grudge?  How bitter will Eleanor get?  A one-shot about the fight to the death.


**They Never Change**

**At the Seville House**

"You knew this day was coming. I'm sorry I don't mean to hurt you, neither of us want to hurt you, but this isn't what we want."

"You don't care about anybody but yourself." He yelled back at his brother. "Neither of you do."

"How can you say that? You are the one that wants us to give up our future, just to cling to your stupid fantasies?"

"Never mind. I don't need you, either of you."

**At the Miller House**

Just like at the Seville house, the argument was heated. The first sister yelled at the other two. "I can't believe it. You two? I thought we talked about this?"

"No you talked at us. You told us what we were going to do." The first sister replied.

"I'll never speak to you again!"

The second sister holding her younger sister close by turned around and said, "You knew this was coming. If you want to leave, that is your prerogative."

**Ten years later**

It's 8:00 in the morning, and just about time for Simon to wake up. Jeanette is standing in front of the stove, starting breakfast.

"What do you want for breakfast, sweetheart?"

"Just give me the usual. Better make it quick I don't want us to be late for the big day."

"It'll be up in a second. Why don't you make sure all the presentation materials are ready? We don't want a repeat of last time." Jeanette laughed quietly as she said that.

"Must you always bring that up? I still think you said you would bring the power-point." Simon also giggled to himself remembering the incident.

He walked into the other room to prepare the materials, and the phone rang.

"I'll get it!" Simon yelled towards his wife.

"Hello? This is Simon. Can I help you?"

"Hi Simon, this is Dave."

"What are you doing up this early, it's only 5:00 am in California?"

"I wanted to call and give you some news about your brother and sister."

"Oh did they finally get approved for the loan on the new restaurant?"

"Not those siblings."

"Then I could care less."

Simon slammed the phone down, out of frustration for what seemed like another attempt at Dave to reunite the family. Suddenly the phone rang again. Simon answered.

"Dave, I don't want to hear…"

He was cut off by Dave.

"She's sick, very sick."

Simon felt sick to the stomach. He knew Jeanette would have forgiven them a long time ago, if he wasn't still so angry. He refused to let on.

"Let me know when they're dead. Then I'll be interested."

He slammed the phone down again. This time, he called Dave back.

"I know you didn't mean that." Dave said.

"What's wrong?"

"Cancer. You know why I called you."

"There's nothing I can do to help her."

"Simon, I know that isn't true."

"Fine. I'll talk to Jeanette, but don't make any promises to that sniveling jerk of a husband she married."

"He's your brother."

"He was."

And with that he hung up for the final time before going to breakfast with his wife.

"Who was that on the phone?" Jeanette asked.

"Jeanette, I have some bad news. Brittney is in the hospital."

"Thanks for letting me know. One egg or two." Jeanette replied.

"Jeanette, it's okay. I know that you have wanted to talk to her for months."

"It doesn't matter. I tried to call her and she refused to call me back. I don't care…"

Simon cut her off. "She has cancer."

Jeanette dropped the pan she was holding on the ground. She knew what this meant, but she didn't know what to do.

"Let's go to work, we don't have time for this now." she replied.

"We need to figure this out before we go, you know why Dave called."

"Fine. Call the office and move the meeting to next week, we need to talk to Eleanor and Theodore."

"Good."

Simon went to the phone and moved the appointment. Jeanette couldn't get over what this meant. After ten years, they were being forced back into their life. And it had nothing to do with an apology.

The two approached the door of the small building. They walked in the front and were greeted at the entrance.

"Welcome to the Seville Diner, how many are in your party?"

"We need to see Eleanor and Theodore Seville please?" Jeanette replied.

"Are they expecting you?"

Jeanette answered, "We're their siblings, please get them, it is important."

"Very well."

A few minutes later, two chubby little chipmunks ran out from the kitchen of the small restaurant and hugged their siblings.

Theodore looked at his brother, "It's been so long. Have you eaten yet?"

"Actually, no. We really need to talk though."

Theodore waived towards a waiter. "Get me two large stacks of Pancakes and scrambled eggs."

The waiter walked away. "Make that four!" Eleanor yelled towards the waiter. "Well we need to eat too." She said with a grin.

The four walked over to a secluded table to talk.

Jeanette started the conversation. "Brittney's in the hospital."

Eleanor looked at her and chuckled, "You came all the way here to tell us that. It would serve you right if I charged you for those pancakes."

Before anybody could continue, Simon interjected and said, "It's cancer."

They may have been slightly out of contact with Simon and Jeanette, but they knew what this meant.

"So are you going to do it?" Theodore asked.

"We can't decide." Simon replied. "That's why we came to talk to you. What do you think?"

"Who called and asked?" Eleanor asked.

"Dave."

"They couldn't even ask themselves. If they didn't ask I doubt they would even accept it."

"Alvin would." Jeanette interrupted. "He would do it to protect her. He loves her too much."

Theodore interrupted. "Then why wouldn't you do it?"

Everybody was stunned by this comment. It had been ten years since anybody in this group even spoke their names. Now Theodore wanted to help them. Yet, nobody could answer his question.

"I don't know." Simon replied. "I guess part of me just doesn't want to."

"Theodore's right. We should help." Jeanette replied.

"After what they said to us? After what they did to us?" Eleanor answered.

Simon thought for a second, and replied, "They are family. As much as I hate to admit it, they are family."

The four continued similar discussion throughout breakfast. By the end, they knew what they had to do. For the first time in ten years, they would have to talk to their siblings.

Finishing his breakfast Simon said, "I guess the four of us will leave tomorrow then."

"Wait, we're not going with you." Eleanor pointed out.

Simon stood up, "Oh yes you are, I want Alvin to be outnumbered."

Theodore tried to settle the issue, "Simon, we normally would love to go with you, but we can't afford last minute plane tickets to California."

"Well that's no problem. You didn't think I was going to see Alvin after sitting through a commercial flight, did you? We're taking the corporate jet, after all, this is business related."

Eleanor stood up grabbing the dishes from the table, and sarcastically commented "Oh yippee, I get to see Alvin and Brittney."

**In California**

The four stepped off the jet and walked in to the Los Angeles airport.

Simon looked around, "I never thought I would come back here, at least not to talk to them."

The three others shook their heads in agreement.

"Do you even know where he lives?" Eleanor asked.

Jeanette stepped in, "At the hospital. As long as she is there, he lives at that hospital."

"Fair enough." Simon replied.

The four picked up their rental car, and went to the hospital that Dave had said she was at.

The four approached the hospital.

Simon walked towards the front desk. "Where is Brittney Miller's room?"

"We don't seem to have a Brittney Miller at this hospital."

Simon turned around, "Well I guess she's not here. Let's go home."

Jeanette walked to the desk, "It may be Brittney Seville."

"Oh yes, Room 427"

Simon turned back around, "I guess she's finally decided to admit she married to that little twerp."

The four went to the room, and saw him through the window. He hadn't changed much physically since they last saw him. He still wore the same signature sweater and hat. He had grown a few inches, but not much. They saw him sitting in a chair crying over his wife.

The four all looked at each other to find out who would go in first. Simon realized he was the one who needed to talk to him. "I'll go."

Simon slowly grabbed the handle of the door and walked in. Alvin turned around as he heard the door open, and dropped his food tray.

"Holy shit." Alvin looked at Simon with amazement that he showed up.

Just as Simon started to talk, Alvin continued his statement.

"How dare you come here after all these years? Get the hell out of here."

Simon turned around and left. "We're leaving."

Theodore looked up at him. "How could he say no?"

"Because I haven't told him. He told me to get the hell out, and I am."

Jeanette grabbed him by the arm. "Your brother probably doesn't even know. Get back in there and tell him, or I won't be going back home with you."

He regretfully walked back into the room.

"You again." Alvin said.

"Don't start with me Alvin."

"Why are you here anyway? I'm guessing that wife of yours conned you in to coming."

"Yeah she did. And you should be really happy she did."

Alvin looked up in confusion. "Why the hell would I be happy to see you?"

"Because of this." Simon threw an envelope at him.

"I don't need your money." Alvin replied.

"Good because you won't get any. Now open the damn envelope."

Alvin opened the envelope and pulled out a note.

"What is this?"

"A gift. Go give it to her doctor." Simon replied.

Simon marched out of the room frustrated with how hard it was to give him that paper.

"Did he take it." Eleanor asked.

"Yeah, but I didn't tell him what it was yet."

"Why not?" Theodore answered.

"I don't know. He'll know once he gives it to her doctor. I guess I figured I let him feel like shit in private. Can we go home now?"

Eleanor chimed in, "No. I want to see what that jerk has to say."

The four waited in the waiting room to see if Alvin would come out to talk. A few minutes later he came out. "Was my doctor right? Is this what it looks like? I don't have the patience for games."

Simon rolling his eyes at Alvin answered, "Alvin, I would not fly out here unless I had to. And I figured I had to."

"Who told you?" Alvin asked.

"Dave."

"I just don't understand how you got access to this. You must have pulled some serious strings to get this for me?"

"Not really." Jeanette answered.

Alvin looked shocked at Jeanette's response.

Simon continued, "After all we were the two that invented it. Of course it's still experimental, so you will need to sign some releases and give updates to my company, but if all goes as it should, she will be cancer free in the next month. "

Alvin dropped down to a chair in amazement. "I guess I owe you two an apology."

Eleanor chimed in, "I know you didn't just say 'you two' did you?

Alvin realizing his mistake back tracked, "Well, I just meant because they invented it, and after what I said about…"

Simon cut him off, "Save it. You got your medicine, now just go to your wife and we can go back to not speaking."

The four walked off towards the exit and stopped when they heard a faint voice.

"I don't want to."

"What did you say?" Theodore asked.

"I said I don't want to go back to the way things were. I want my brothers back, and my sisters."

Just then Dave walked into the hospital and saw them together. "I cannot believe what I am seeing. The five of you this close to each other?"

Simon looked at Alvin, "I think we're violating some restraining orders, aren't we?"

Everybody laughed. For the first time in years, they were happy being near each other. The group walked into Brittney's room.

Alvin and Dave came in first and Simon behind him. As Simon walked in, Brittney sat up in her bed.

"Get out!" She screamed.

Dave dropped his arms in anguish, "Well that lasted long." Frustrated with years of arguing, he left the room and went to the waiting room.

Alvin, desperately trying to explain the situation before she broke the good mood from the hall, grabbed her hand. "Brittney, they came here to help."

"I would rather die than accept anything from them."

"That can be arranged." Eleanor replied.

"Are they all here?" Brittney yelled.

Alvin looked at her and said, "Yes, please let us explain before you say anything."

Brittney remained silent, and Alvin continued. "Simon and Jeanette have invented a cure for cancer. It is experimental, but they came here to authorize you to receive the drug."

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" Brittney asked. "You think I don't know about that drug. It's on the news every single day. They are calling it the 'Seville wonder pill' on the news. Only a moron wouldn't have heard of this."

Simon chimed in, "Now I agree with you on that." Snickering at Alvin.

"If I wanted to ask them for it, I would have called. Now all of you, just leave me alone."

None of them could believe their ears. Had the hate grown so deep in this once loving family, that she would rather die than have her sister help her?

They went out in the hall.

"I can't believe she turned it down." Jeanette said.

Eleanor replied, "Don't you even remember that day?"

**Ten Years Earlier**

It was our senior year of high school. We had that big concert in Europe the next week during Spring break, so we all took a chance to relax that weekend. Alvin and Brittney decided to go on a big romantic date, and the four of us stayed home.

We were sitting around when the mail came, and that was when we got the news.

"Eleanor! Eleanor! It came!" Theodore yelled.

Eleanor rushed from the couch to Theodore and gave him a great big hug. She opened the envelope Theodore was waving in the air in excitement. "You got in!"

"Yours will probably be in your mailbox too! Why don't we go over to your house and check?" Theodore asked.

"The mail comes later to our house. Besides, I want to stay here and talk to Simon and Jeanette."

"Okay. Oh here Simon, this is for you."

"Thanks…" Simon became excited, "Jean, it's here."

"Well open it up already!"

"Dear Mr. Seville…" he mumbled through some opening sentences, "We would like to welcome you to the Stanford University College of Sciences! I got accepted."

Jeanette ran up and hugged him. "I knew you would."

"Okay, I'm with Theo, we need to go to your house and see if you and Jean have your letters!"

The four ran out the door with excitement to the Miller house.

Theodore ran to the mailbox. "They are both here! A letter from Stanford and a letter from the culinary school!"

"Jeanette you open yours first, I'm too nervous."

Jeanette opened her letter.

"I'm in!"

Eleanor opened hers, "Me too!"

The four bounced around in a group hug cheering over the good news. They all had gotten accepted into their dream schools. Then it occurred to them.

Simon stopped cheering, "Who tells Brittney and Alvin?"

"Oh no. I forgot about that." Eleanor added.

"Let's split up. You two tell Brittney and we'll tell Alvin. If they aren't near each other, they won't gang up on us."

They all agreed.

**At the Seville house.**

Simon and Theodore were sitting on the couch, seemingly scared to death of when Alvin came home. Suddenly the door opened. "Hey Si. Hey Theo. What are the two of you doing?"

Simon looked at Alvin, "Why don't you sit down and we can talk."

"Okay, you two are acting a little strange. What's going on?" Alvin asked.

The two brothers looked at each other.

"I just found out that I was accepted at Stanford."

Alvin suddenly stood up furious.

"And I got into culinary school."

He looked back at the pair. Upset, he picked up a lamp and hurled it across the room.

"How could you? Do you know what this means?"

Unfortunately they did.

"Alvin, you knew the group wasn't going to stay together forever. The music was great when we were growing up, but we both want more than that now."

Alvin yelled, "How could you want more? We make more money than we know what to do with, we are famous, and we only work when we want to. Do you think that you will do better than that as a stupid scientist or a chef?"

"I know that you want to spend the rest of your life singing "ooh eeh ooh aah aah" but I don't. I want to learn about the sciences. I want to grow up and become a researcher, maybe work for a drug company."

"Your breaking up the best rock band in the world so that you can become a pharmacist and a chef?"

"A researcher… never mind you don't understand."

"What about how I feel. You don't see Jeanette and Eleanor leaving their sister behind, do you?"

There was a cold silence.

Alvin looked at us and replied with the only thing that could come to mind, "Oh my God. You don't mean to tell me that they are going with you two idiots?"

"Sorta" Theodore mumbled.

Simon spoke up. "You knew this day was coming. I'm sorry I don't mean to hurt you, neither of us want to hurt you, but this isn't what we want."

"You don't care about anybody but yourself. Neither of you do."

"How can you say that? You are the one that wants us to give up our future, just to cling to your stupid fantasies?"

"Never mind. I don't need you, either of you. I was the only one of us with talent anyway. I wanted to grow up working with my brothers, but this is just as good. Now I don't have to split all of the money three ways. Just get the hell out of my life."

Then Alvin left the house and didn't come back until we both left for college. We ended up cancelling the European tour, and he couldn't get a successful concert after that.

**At the Miller House**

The Miller situation wasn't any better. If anything it was worse. Like the Sevilles, Eleanor and Jeanette were clung to the couch waiting for Brittney to come home.

"Hi girls, I'm home!"

Eleanor walked towards her oldest sister. "Brittney, we need to talk."

Just then the phone rang.

"Just a second sis, let me get that."

She answered the phone. "Hi this is Brittney"

"It's Alvin."

"Oh so you couldn't stop talking to me, huh?"

"Just come on, I want to get the hell out of here."

"What are you talking about, Alvie?"

"They are leaving."

"What?"

"Simon, Theodore, Jeanette, Eleanor, they are all leaving for college. They are leaving us alone."

Jeanette and Eleanor couldn't hear the conversation, but they had a bad feeling that their cover was blown. Of course that was confirmed when they heard Brittney scream and slam the phone down on the hook.

"How dare you two!"

"Now Brittney, let us explain." Eleanor pleaded.

"I don't want to hear it. You two think you are too good to be singers. Instead you want to go into your own little lives."

"That's not fair Brittney!" Eleanor yelled back.

"I knew that Simon would end up going away. I even suspected Theodore might go away. But this? I can't believe it. You two? I thought we talked about this?"

"No you talked at us. You told us what we were going to do." Eleanor answered.

"I'll never speak to you again!"

Jeanette, not liking to be confrontational let out the worst comment she could make, "You knew this was coming. If you want to leave, that is your prerogative."

Brittney started to walk out the door and turned around. "Neither of you will be anything without me. You think you are going to become famous as a chef and a chemist. Get real. You could have been famous with me, now you are going to die a nobody. Both of you will."

Jeanette responded, "I just want to do great things for the world. As a scientist, I can make great things, cure diseases, but what would I accomplish as a singer?"

"You think you are going to accomplish anything it your measly little life? You just lost your chance to do great things. And you just lost your sister." And with that Brittney stormed out of the house, got into Alvin's car that was waiting outside, and they drove off.

We never heard from either of them again.

**Ten years later**

"What are we going to do?" Jeanette asked.

Eleanor stood up. "I say we leave her here and wait for her to ask for help or die, just like she asked us to."

Simon interjected, "As much as I want to, we can't just leave her here. Not anymore. We're involved now."

Theodore walked off towards Brittney's room and yelled for Alvin, "Alvin! Come here now."

Alvin came out of the room slowly.

"Do you even love your wife?"

"Of course I do. How could you ask that? Do you not know me at all anymore?"

Theodore responded, "No I don't. Because the Alvin I knew wouldn't let the love of his life die because she is too stupid to admit she was wrong."

Alvin looked back into the room. "I can't do anything about it."

"Sure you can. Tell her what she wants to hear. Tell her they are pain pills and that the doctor gave it to her so she would die comfortably. In a month when she is cured, you can deal with the argument."

Alvin snickered. "She is going to be really pissed in a month."

"Would you rather have a pissed wife, or a dead one?"

Alvin was shocked. He didn't remember Theodore being this confrontational and direct. "You have really changed over the years."

Theodore looked at him as he started to walk off, "No I haven't. I haven't eaten in a while and I just want to get out of here before I have to eat hospital food."

Alvin smiled, now seeing his brother beneath that rough exterior, and he returned to Brittney's room.

"Here you go Brit."

"I'm not taking those pills from Simon."

"Don't worry. I believe his exact words were, 'I wouldn't let her test a placebo'. Now here take your pain pills."

**One month later**

Alvin walked into his wife's room. He saw her sleeping quietly on the bed. All of the sudden, she sat up and slapped him in the face. "Don't ever lie to be again."

"Lie to you about what? What's wrong, are you feeling okay?"

"That's the problem. I feel great. Pain pills my ass."

Alvin snickered to himself.

"So have you continued to speak to them?"

"Well I had to. You could only get those pills if I reported your progress daily to the head of the research department, which to my surprise turned out to be Simon."

"So what do we do now? Are we supposed to pretend that they didn't leave us?"

"No. We are supposed to be thankful that they saved your life. I don't know who was right and who was wrong ten years ago. All I know is that if I had won that argument with Simon, you wouldn't be here today."

**Ten years later.**

"Merry Christmas, Simon." Theodore and Eleanor said as they walked in the door of the Seville Mansion.

"This is some place you have here Simon!"

"Well would you expect less from the co-CEOs of the largest drug company in the world?"

Jeanette walked in the room "I'm the CEO, you are the co-CEO. Get it right Si. Where are my nephews and nieces?"

"They're coming. They're unpacking the presents out of the car."

"Well then I guess everybody is here." Simon added. "How's the restaurant business, Theo?"

Theo answered with excitement, "Great, we just had the ribbon cutting ceremony on our 50th Seville Diner location and we're finally expanding into the west coast next year!"

The group sat down in front of the fireplace drinking hot cocoa. They looked outside and saw that it had just begun to snow.

"I think this calls for a Christmas carol!" Theodore yelled.

Simon jumped up from his chair, "Absolutely."

They began to sing.

**Christmas, Christmas time is near**

**Time for toys and time for cheer**

**We've been good but we can't last**

**Hurry Christmas, hurry fast**

**Want a plane that loops the loop**

A voice starts to sing from behind

"**Me I want a hula hoop"**

**We can hardly stand the wait**

**Please Christmas, don't be late**

Simon turned around. "I thought you guys were never going to get done unloading the car. Honestly Alvin, I love these kids, but they need to work on their speed if they are going to be on the basketball team like their dad!" He bends down to hug Alvin's children, "It's been weeks since I've seen you guys, how have you been?"

"Good" They answered.

Jeanette walked towards Alvin and gave him a hug. "Where's my sister?"

"She's putting on another coat of lipstick."

"She hasn't changed a bit."


End file.
